Sviatoslav Richter & Beethoven

No. 306 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages, which can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast306

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One of my objectives for 2019 on the Friday Blog and Podcast is to complete the cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas I began a couple of years ago with the final three sonatas (with Stephen Kovacevich), Serkin (the Hammerklavier coupled with Concerto no. 4) and a pair of sonatas in another Beethoven Concerto and sonata coupling that included the Emperor Concerto, the Moonlight and Pastoral sonatas. In the Fall, I plan to revisit the remaining Beethoven piano concertos coupled with more of the sonatas. In the meantime, as a bit of a teaser, today’s montage starts us off towards our survey of the remaining 26 sonatas.

Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) was one of the greatest and most recorded pianists of the 20th century. He played with virtuosic technique, beautiful tone, and great imagination. Richter was largely self-taught which may account for the personal, idiosyncratic character of many of his performances, including some aspects of the performances I retained today, from the “Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century” anthology.

Today’s montage opens with the sonata in A-flat major, opus 26 which dates from about 1800. It is a four-movement work of an improvisatory character (none of the movements are in sonata form) in which Beethoven expanded the scope of writing for the piano. Richter plays this great sonata with a light, clean touch. He takes the final movement at an unusually fast pace.

The "Tempest" sonata, opus 31 no. 2, written in 1802, is in three movements and features an opening movement which integrates sections of widely varying tempos and emotional characters. The middle portion of this movement features two piano recitifs played pianissimo in a distant voice of unearthly sorrow. Richter plays them beautifully. The final movement of this work is a rondo on a rolling theme in the minor full of smoldering passion.

The last sonata in the montage is the "Appassionata", opus 57, written in 1803, a major work of Beethoven's "heroic" period. This is a work for piano virtuosity and Richter plays it to the hilt. It is also a work of deep sorrow combined with an angry determination. Richter captures the force and fury of this great music.

Some of the sonatas are recorded in live performance, but the last piece - the short Andante Favori - is a studio filler I forst discovered on another Richter recording in my vinyl collection (which I plan to share in a Tuesday Blog some time in 2020, Beethoven’s 250^th anniversary year). The Andante is contemporaneous to the other three works, written between 1803 and 1804, and published in 1805. It was originally intended to be the second of the three movements of Beethoven's "Waldstein" piano sonata.

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